Enhancing Patient Experience of Pain and Sleep Through Non-Pharmacological Strategies

Comfort can be a physical sensation, a psychological state, or both simultaneously . Patient comfort in an inpatient setting is a subjective state that varies from each individual based on different factors and situations. The Richards-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire (R-CSQ) and the Revised American Pain Society Outcome Questionnaire (APS-POQ-R) are tools that have been developed to assess patient satisfaction and comfort in the hospital setting. The R-CSQ is a scale used to measure different aspects of sleep quality. This scale allows the patient to rate their quality and amount of sleep on a scale of 0-100. The R-CSQ allows the patient to rate six different components of their sleep, including sleep depth, sleep latency, awakenings, returning to sleep, sleep quality, and noise. The APS-POQ-R can be utilized to measure perceived levels of pain in patients. The APS-POQ-R scale is a validated scale that is used in the hospital setting with reliable and consistent results. This scale measures five aspects of a patient's perception and experiences with pain and a sixth aspect including nonpharmacological interventions. We propose that if patients implement interventions that promote sleep and decrease pain, comfort will be improved.